


Take the Chance

by exclamation



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Holt family feels, Panic Attacks, Prisoners, Rescue, Trans Female Pidge | Katie Holt, Trauma, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-13
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-08-22 05:32:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8274619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exclamation/pseuds/exclamation
Summary: Matt Holt has been a prisoner for so long that home seems like a distant dream, but then he's offered a chance to earn freedom for himself and his father. The Galra will put him in a position to get rescued. All he has to do is infect his rescuers' ship with a virus and the Galra will let him and his dad go back to Earth. If he fails, his dad will be slowly tortured to death. It seems like a simple choice. He will do anything to save his dad. But what can he do when he learns who his rescuers are?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I finally have time to write again and it seems it's easier to start a new story than pick up momentum on the half-finished ones. I do intend to go back to the other fics I have incomplete on here, but I'm not sure when. In the meantime, I've gotten heavily into Voltron: Legendary Defender. 
> 
> I've been headcannoning hard about Katie/Pidge being trans female. This story isn't really about that but it will get mentioned in later chapters, along with discussions of gender dysphoria about her time at the Garrison. 
> 
> Trigger warning: this story will discuss torture in places but not describe it graphically.

Matt didn’t know how long he’d been here. It was long enough that his previous life felt like a strange and beautiful dream. Days passed in the same, painful routine, interspersed by moments of true horror. He’d learned quickly that while the routine was bad, any break to the routine was enormously worse. There had been the time when one of the machines malfunctioned and crushed the tentacle of the slave who’d been working it. There had been the day when those in charge had decided to make an example of some of the workers, dragging them up onto the walkway and killing them over the course of three days while the slaves were expected to continue their work below. Matt didn’t like to think about the time a large, scaly creature had tried to steal a little extra food. 

It hadn’t taken Matt long to stop thinking about escape or home or anything but surviving and doing what little he could to protect his dad. He didn’t dare imagine anything outside this place because if he tried hoping, it would hurt too much to lose that hope. So he kept working, buying another day’s life with each day’s labour, trying to make sure Shiro’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain. 

He was in the middle of another shift, operating the heavy machinery that manufactured parts for the Galra warships. When the guards started walking down the line of workers, he put more effort into his work, despite the constant ache in his limbs, cranking through the process and hoping to avoid notice. 

A hand clamped onto his shoulder. Matt’s hands froze on the machine, waiting to hear the worst, hardly daring to breathe in case the Galra soldier took offense at it. 

“Move!” 

The guard yanked him from his place. Matt released his hold on the machine and walked, his whole body shaking in terror. He glanced through the constantly moving machinery and saw, with a horror that filled his entire being, that another guard was towing his dad away from his place too. Matt knew they hadn’t done anything to deserve being made an example of, but that didn’t matter. 

None of the other slaves looked at him as he was shoved past. No one would meet his eyes. He didn’t blame them. No one wanted to draw attention to themselves and no one would want to see the spectre of what might happen to them. 

Matt reached the stairs right behind his dad and clanked up to the walkway above the factory floor. His breath came in terrified gasps as he remembered the last workers made an example of. Could he do something? Could he say something? Could he at least persuade them to leave his dad out of this? 

His mind was empty of all ideas. No escape plans. No plots for how to get out alive. Only one thought broke through the panic: he was never going to see his sister again. 

He expected to be stopped on the walkway which doubled as a stage for punishments. Instead, the guard kept his grip on Matt’s shoulder, shoving him to the door. Matt didn’t know what to make of this. He couldn’t imagine that this would be a good thing. 

He stared at the back of his dad’s head as the two of them were marched along the dark corridor outside the factory. Purple lights shed eerie shadows on the floor. Matt tried to focus on breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. A panic attack right now would only make things worse. 

They were pushed into an elevator and Matt was finally able to see his dad’s face. He looked as scared and pale as Matt was. They stood side-by-side and Matt took the opportunity to reach out and grab his dad’s hand. He gave a squeeze and received one back. The instant of human contact helped him hold back the flood of panic that was threatening to drown him. 

“Hey!”

A fist slammed into their joined hands and they quickly let go. Matt rubbed at the edge of his hand. That was going to bruise, but he’d had worse. It was worth it. 

The elevator doors opened again and Matt found himself shoved out into another long corridor. This one of wider so Matt and his dad got to walk side-by-side. The guard kept his grip on Matt’s shoulder, alien figures gripping with bruising force. It took less than a minute to reach a door and be marched into a large room. Only then did the guard let go of Matt’s shoulder. 

A kick to the back of his legs sent Matt down, his knees slamming painfully against the hard floor. His dad dropped to his knees beside him, but not quite quickly enough to avoid a kick of his own. Matt kept his head bent forward, but he risked peeking up, seeing the large Galra warrior standing in front of them. 

“Earthlings,” the warrior said, “you have an opportunity to be of use to the Galra Empire.” 

Matt wasn’t sure if they were expected to say something. Should he proclaim his desire to serve? Should he point out that they were already being useful in the factory? A part of him wanted to say that he didn’t want to do anything to help the Galra, but his back itched with remembered pain. He kept his mouth shut and hoped to avoid the punishments that defiance would earn. 

“A group of terrorists have been attacking our ships,” the Galra warrior continued. “We have reason to believe they will attack a transport ship that is scheduled to leave this sector. If that ship is transporting prisoners, there is a chance they will decide to capture those prisoners for their own purposes. One of you will be on that ship.” 

One of them. Matt didn’t like that. If they were both to be on the ship, Matt might have dared to hope that they could make an escape, or maybe even help out whatever group were brave enough to fight the Galra. But only one of them? He could already guess what the other one would be used for. 

“When the terrorists take you back to their base, you will find a way to gain access to a computer console and insert this.” The Galra held up a small rectangle of crystal. 

“What will it do?” Matt’s dad asked. Matt expected the Galra to lash out at him for daring to speak, but he actually answered the question. 

“It will upload a virus to their systems that will take out their defences and send a signal to alert us to their location.” 

“You want us to make them vulnerable,” Matt’s dad said. 

“Exactly. And when we take their base, we will show you our gratitude. Succeed at this and the two of you will be free to go. We will even give you a pod to take you back to your own planet. Help us destroy these terrorists and you can go home.” 

Home. It was a word that felt almost religious to Matt now. It was a heaven, a dream, some unreachable paradise. It carried so many connotations, thoughts of Mom and Katie and friends, of computer games and books and Thanksgiving dinners, of walking in the sun and hearing rain beat against the roof at night. The ache of longing was something almost physical. 

“We’re not going to help you kill anyone who’s willing to fight against you,” Matt’s dad said. That warm feeling that had filled Matt on the mention of home was washed away in a wave of terror. 

The Galra lashed out, his hand grasping Matt’s dad under the chin and hauling him upwards. Pinpricks of blood showed at claws pierced skin. Matt’s dad dangled from that hand, grasping at that Galra’s arm to take some of the pressure off the claws, legs flailing wildly. 

“Dad!” Matt started to get to his feet, but his guard was back, grasping his shoulders and holding him on his knees. He stared up, scared and horrified, as his dad hung in the grasp of the alien warrior. 

“These terrorists don’t care about you. Why should you care about them?” the Galra asked. “Think about the options in front of you. You can help the Galra Empire and be free to go home. Or you can suffer the most painful death we can orchestrate and I’ll find another pair of volunteers who are more open to the offer.” 

Matt stared up at his dad, choking and bleeding in an alien’s hand. He knew that the Galra wasn’t bluffing about painful deaths. He’d seen the sort of deaths these monsters inflicted. It could last days, even weeks, of unending agony. The Galra would find someone willing to take the offer. Why shouldn’t it be them? Why shouldn’t they get to go home? He saw his dad bleeding and thought of Mom and Katie. 

“We’ll do it,” Matt said. 

The Galra let go of his dad. The older human slammed back onto the ground, collapsing onto his knees. Matt longed to hurry to his side, to check that those claws hadn’t pierced anything vital. But he was held pinned, and could only watch as his dad turned to face him, rubbing at the bleeding marks on his neck. 

“Matt, don’t,” he gasped. 

“Let my dad go,” Matt said, “and I’ll do what you want.” 

The Galra turned to him, a smile revealing sharp teeth in that monstrous, purple face. 

“I will let you both go,” he said, “when you complete your task.” He held out the rectangle of crystal. Matt reached out a hand. The crystal dropped into it and he closed his fist around the cold, smooth shape. 

“Matt, no,” his dad said again. 

“Work quickly,” the Galra said. “If I don’t receive the signal within a day, I will have to start taking my impatience on your father.” 

He waved a hand. The guard took hold of Matt’s upper arms and hauled him to his feet. 

“Matt, don’t help these monsters!” 

Matt was pushed towards the door but he heard the impact against his dad’s flesh and heard the cry of pain. This was what he was terrified of. His dad was going to be used as a hostage, but there was a chance the Galra would keep their side of the agreement. Even if Matt got killed by the Galra’s enemies for his actions, his dad would get to go home. It was worth it. 

The door closed behind him, blocking out the sounds of his dad’s screams. 

Matt let himself get marched along the corridor away from the factory. He tried not to think about the people the Galra considered terrorists. He held on to the fact that someone would be willing to do what the Galra asked so the end result would be the same for the Galra’s enemies. If he did what he asked, his dad would be safe. That was what mattered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shameless invention of alien species in this one. :)

Matt huddled in a small cell along with half a dozen other prisoners, each of them a different species, from a tiny, furry body pressed into Matt’s side, to the large, scaled creature Matt recognised as a Stindan. He wondered if any of the others had been made an offer by the Galra. Maybe each of them had tucked away one of those crystal rectangles. It would make sense, so that if one of them lost their nerve, the other would carry out the mission. He couldn’t easily ask them whether they were on a secret mission for the Galra. 

So Matt just sat there, wrapping his arms around his knees, trying not to think about his dad’s pleas. His dad didn’t want him to do this, didn’t want him doing anything that would help the Galra and hurt the Galra’s enemies. He could understand that, but he couldn’t let himself dwell on it. This was his way to do the impossible, to get his dad out of the Galra’s clutches. If this failed, he would never get another chance. He couldn’t let guilt or doubt get in the way of saving his dad. 

He focused on his dad, on his mom, on Katie, on the hope he hadn’t let himself feel in far too long. He knew his own odds of survival were low. If there were people willing to fight against the Galra that had to be ruthless. They would probably kill him if they realised he’d made them vulnerable. That was assuming the Galra didn’t blow the base to smithereens with him inside. This wasn’t about Matt being safe. This was about his dad. 

One of them would get to go home. 

Matt repeated that thought like a mantra as the minutes slipped past. How long had he been on this ship? He wondered how much longer he had before the Galra commander started torturing his dad. He should still have most of the day, but he couldn’t count on that. Besides, he didn’t know how difficult it might be to get to a computer once he was taken to the enemy’s base. If he was moved from one cell to another, he might have to figure out an escape at that end. 

The ship shuddered. 

One of the other prisoners gave a quiet whimper and then huddled tighter into the corner. Matt felt his heart racing with anticipation. This was it. 

The ship shook again, more violently this time, and Matt felt his stomach lurch. They must be manoeuvring more violently than the artificial gravity could keep up with. There came another shudder and this time it sounded like a distant explosion. 

The other prisoners cowered, clustering together away from the door. Matt let himself be drawn with them, crouching low and trying to be small, trying to avoid notice from a new threat. The instincts were ones he’d learned over the course of his captivity and it was easy to go with it, trying to look no different from the other prisoners. He wanted to blend in with them. 

The furry creature beside him was small enough to hide completely behind his body, a small paw clutching at Matt’s leg as though he could provide some stability as the world rocked and shook with a battle they couldn’t see. He let himself idly wonder if the creature came from a pack species, used to being part of a group. It was easier to indulge his scientific curiosity than to think about the fact there was an enemy of the Galra out there attacking this ship while they were trapped like animals in a cage. 

Beyond the cell door, he heard laser fire and then something exploded. The alien beside Matt was trembling, pressed against his side. Matt felt that same fear, even though he’d expected the ship to be attacked. Everything depended on what happened next. His dad’s life depended on it. 

Something bright pierced the metal of the cell door. It blazed upwards, melting a jagged line around the locking mechanism. Something clanged against the outside of the door and it burst inwards, giving Matt his first view of this enemy of the Galra. 

The figure in the broken doorway looked almost human. Armour and helmet hid a lot of features, but he could have mistaken her for a human woman if he didn’t look too closely. Her eyes locked onto Matt’s. 

“Pidge, he’s here,” she said. Matt guessed she was talking to someone over a communications unit in her helmet, but she said, “Yes,” as though answering a question. 

She stepped into the room, lowering the sword she’d used to cut through the door. The light that had blazed down its length faded. 

“I’m Princess Allura,” she said, still looking at Matt. “I’m going to get you to safety.” 

Her voice was soft and gentle. Even if he wasn’t trying to get into her base, he probably would have gone with her. He pushed himself to his feet. Beside him, the other prisoners weren’t so sure. The little one still cowered behind Matt’s legs, a furred paw clutching at his pants. Matt didn’t want to delay because every minute that passed was a minute less he’d have to complete his mission before his dad got tortured. Matt looked down at the small creature. 

“We know what the Galra will do to us if we stay. Going with her can’t be worse.” 

“I promise,” Allura said, “we’re not going to hurt you.” 

Footsteps came running up outside. Allura was back outside the door and bringing up her sword in an instant. It blazed with light again. Matt only saw a small slice of the fight through the door but it was over quickly, Allura slicing apart two Galra sentry robots. 

“Please hurry,” she said. 

Matt moved towards her. The small alien that clung to his leg quickly followed, never letting go of Matt’s pants like a frightened child. That was all that the others needed to hurry to their feet. 

“This way,” Allura said and started jogging down the ship’s corridor. Matt hurried after her, but his little tagalong was clearly struggling on his short legs. Matt reached down and grabbed hold of the small alien, lifting him up. The creature clung to his shirt with furred fists and buried its head into Matt’s chest, shaking with fear. 

At each corner, Allura paused, making sure that the prisoners were keeping up, then he herded them in a new direction. After a few minutes, they came into a hanger deck. Most of the ships were the ugly transports of the Galra, but there was one sleek, craft in white and black. The similarity to Allura’s armour left no doubt who it belonged to. 

“It will be a tight fit,” Allura said, “but we haven’t far to go.” 

A black section at the front of the small craft faded to nothing, revealing a small cockpit. There were only two seats and Allura quickly climbed up and took one of them, stowing her sword at her side before reaching down to help the others in. A squidlike creature slithered up the side of the ship and poured itself into the second seat. Matt held up his furry burden and the tentacled creature took hold of it, cradling the smaller alien as Matt had. Matt hurried to climb up as well before offering a hand down to help the others. Once they were all squeezed in behind and around Allura, there could be no argument that it was a tight fit. They were squeezed into the space beside and behind the seats, pushed back enough so Allura could reach the controls. Matt was pressed into her seat from behind but the bulky mass of the Stindan, who was about four times the size of any of the rest of them. 

The cockpit front reappeared in front of them and Matt had to fight down a sense of claustrophobia. He’d come to despite the sensation of being trapped and right now he was definitely trapped, pinned in by the bodies of the other prisoners in a ship belonging to another unknown alien. 

"We're heading back to the castle," Allura said, presumably speaking to her associates again. “Cover our exit.” Matt couldn’t hear whatever was said to her in response, but he heard Allura’s gentle tone as she said, “Yes, Pidge. I have him.” 

Matt looked quickly at the other aliens, wondering who she was talking about. None of the prisoners had seemed to recognise Allura but had she recognised one of them? 

The little ship took off from the hanger floor. Allura flew it out into open space and then Matt had to cling to her chair as she manoeuvred around wreckage and laser fire and Galra fighters. The little ship’s anti-gravity couldn’t keep up with the rapid changes in momentum. It was hard for Matt to see much of what lay ahead because this small craft was clearly designed to give views to the pilot more than passengers, and the alien prisoners pressed in around him blocked some of the canopy. Still, after a few moments, they broke clear of the worse of the chaos around the Galra ship and Matt got a look through the canopy at their destination. There was an enormous, white ship in front of them, a large body flanked by four outer part that might have been engines or sub-compartments. It was beautiful and elegant and so unlike the dark, ugly masses of the Galra ships that Matt wanted to break down in tears. 

As they flew towards the white ship, a bright line of energy shot from it, past the little craft, shooting at the Galra ship behind them. Something brightly coloured flashed across the canopy, hidden from view before Matt could get a good look at it, and then Allura’s small craft was coming in close to the big ship, aiming for a hanger bay. 

As soon as they were inside, before the little ship had even landed, Allura started talking again, “Paladins, return to your bays. I’ll open a wormhole as soon as you get here.” 

She powered down the ship and opened the canopy, the ship’s covering vanishing to nothing once again. She eased past her passengers and leapt gracefully down to the deck below. Matt peered out, seeing more of the small craft along the edges of the large hanger. He expected to see guards here to escort them somewhere else, but there was no one in sight. 

“Please wait here,” Allura said. “I need to get to the control room.” 

She set off at a run, leaving the rescued prisoners all along inside this strange ship. 

This was so much better than Matt could have hoped. He quickly climbed out of the small craft, leaving behind the other prisoners who were rather more cautious. He didn’t know how much time he would have before someone came for them and whether they would have another opportunity to be here unwatched. If he could complete his mission right now, the Galra wouldn’t have too much time to do anything awful to his dad. 

He ducked between two of the small craft to reach the wall, looking up and down. Each of the craft had what looked like refuelling lines but there was no sign of a computer he could use. He hurried along the wall, behind perhaps half a dozen of the ships, until he reached the perpendicular wall. There he saw something that looked promising. There was a pedestal with a handprint panel on its topmost surface and a space above that a projected screen could fill. It could very well be a computer. Most importantly, there were a handful of slots down the side that looked like they could be inputs for the crystal he carried. 

It was a little too close to the door for his liking, but it would have to do. Matt pulled the crystal rectangle out of the pocket of his pants and hurried to what he hoped was a computer. He slid the crystal into one of the slots and he let out a relieved breath when it fit perfectly. This had to be the right place for it. 

He quickly stepped back from the computer and looked around, hoping that no one had seen him. The other rescued prisoners were still clustered around the ship they’d come in, halfway down the long hanger. None of them were looking at him. 

He wondered how long it would be until he knew whether this had worked. How long until he knew whether he’d saved his dad. 

“Matt!” 

He spun towards the sound of his name, shocked into motion even while his brain was stunned by the familiarity of that syllable. A small figure in white and green armour raced through the hanger door towards him. Matt instinctively tensed for violence and pain at the sight of someone coming towards him, but the small figure just ploughed into him, wrapping arms around him in a tight embrace. 

“I can’t believe you’re here,” the figure said in a voice so familiar Matt was sure he must be dreaming. All he could see with the figure pressed so tightly against him was the green top of the helmet. It couldn’t be her. It was impossible that she could be here. 

“I looked for so long but I was so scared I’d find you too late,” she continued. “I kept having nightmares that we’d come to rescue you only to find out you’d been killed the day before.” 

As she kept talking, Matt reached out and placed his hands on the side of her helmet. He needed to see. He needed to know. He couldn’t believe it right now. She let him lift the helmet from her head and a mess of brown hair fell out in untidy tufts, much shorter than he remembered it being. But then she tilted her head back and her eyes met his, shining with tears. Her smile beamed up at him. 

Matt let the helmet fall to the ground as he wrapped his arms around his little sister and clutched her tightly. 

“Katie.” He didn’t know how this was possible, but his little sister was right here in front of him after all this time. He didn’t have the thoughts to find anything more to say than, “Katie.”


	3. Chapter 3

Katie was crying into shoulder even as she kept talking. Matt wasn’t even really listening to what she was saying. He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his sister, who should be safe at home on Earth, was right here. 

“When we found the prisoner transfer list,” she was saying, “and it said there was one Earthling, I knew it had to be you or Dad. I probably would have taken my lion and gone straight to find you as soon as we saw that record except...” 

“Pidge, you’re rambling,” a voice interrupted. Matt knew that voice too. He looked past Katie to a tall figure, this time in armour accented in black, clutching a helmet under his right arm. The man looked different now, a patch of white in his hair making him look older, but the smile he gave was the same. 

“Shiro,” Matt said. A part of him felt that he must have hit his head and started hallucinating all this, because it wasn’t possible for Shiro to be here either. “I thought you were dead. That gladiator...” 

“I’m a tough man to kill.” Shiro walked closer, put his left hand on Katie’s shoulder, and gave a squeeze. “Now, Pidge, how about you stop suffocating your brother so we can go down to the dining room and get him some food? Then we can start planning what to do about your dad.” 

Shiro gave another smile and then moved off towards the other rescued prisoners. Katie sheepishly let go of the hug, wiping her eyes. Even as she moved away, Matt put a hand on Katie’s arm, not wanting to lose contact for even an instant. Even holding on to her, he couldn’t quite believe this was real. 

“Everyone,” Shiro called loudly, approaching the aliens, “I’m going to take you to get some food but if any of you have injuries, let me know and I’ll take you to the infirmary for medical treatment instead.” 

While he talked, Katie looked up at Matt, her earlier delight replaced by a more serious expression, “Do you know what happened to Dad? Is he OK?” 

Matt thought of their dad in the last moment he’d seen him, begging Matt not to agree to the Galra plan. In that instant, the full horror of what he’d just done washed away his shock. He’d just infected this place with a virus to make them vulnerable to Galra attack. He’d just put his sister and his friend in danger. 

Matt pulled away from Katie and leapt back towards the computer, his fingers closing on the edge of the piece of crystal. He yanked it out of the slot, fingers slipping and sending it skittering across the floor. 

“What is that?” Katie asked. She was staring at Matt, seeing the look of horror on his face. A similar look fell onto her own features. She shoved Matt aside with an elbow to the side and pushed in front of the computer. “What did you do?” 

She placed her hands on the top of the pedestal and a screen projected up from it, the display changing with every deft swipe of her fingers, revealing rows of alien symbols and strange diagrams. None of it meant anything to Matt but it obviously meant everything to Katie. She slammed her hand against a button. 

“Allura, open the hanger doors for the lions and then shut down everything except emergency life support.” 

“Pidge, what’s going on?” came Allura’s voice, her face flashing up in the corner of the screen. 

“What’s happening?” Shiro asked, drawn back to the pair of them by the commotion. 

“There’s a virus. It’s already infected half the castle’s systems. We need to shut everything down before it infects the rest.” 

Shiro’s eyes shot towards Matt, the accusation in them clear. Matt was shaking as badly as he’d been when he’d been dragged out of the factory. The guilt surged through him, bringing tears up as he hugged his arms around himself. 

“I didn’t know it was you,” Matt said, part confession, part plea. “I didn’t know.” 

Allura started giving orders to someone on her end of the video call, “Coran, get to the particle shield generator. I’m shutting down all connections between systems. You’ll need to reset the shield manually. Pidge, the backups for the core systems are kept isolated. I can purge the virus from here but someone needs to go to the data storage and reconnect them to the computer to initialise them again. Pidge, can you do it?” 

“Yes,” said Katie. “I think so. Yes.” 

“The rest of you Paladins,” Allura said, “get to the lions and launch. We could have incoming forces at any moment. The virus has got into the communications system and we’re broadcasting our location on a Galra frequency.” 

Shiro pushed up next to Katie to address Allura on the display, “But what if we need Pidge to form Voltron? Can’t you or Coran do this connection?” 

“It’s too far away. I will be shutting down all but emergency power to stop the virus spreading and it would take too long for either of us to get there. Pidge is much closer and she will be close to her lion when she is done.” 

“I’ll be as fast as I can,” Katie said. 

“Good luck, Paladins,” Allura said. Her face vanished from the screen. A moment later, the screen and pedestal went dark. A moment after that, the lights in the hanger disappeared, leaving only a handful of faintly glowing panels along the walls, just enough to see the shadows of each other and the ships. 

“Hurry,” Shiro told Katie, then he looked to the former prisoners, who had returned to cowering in a tight group now that the lights had died. “We’re about to have company. Stay here. We will do everything in our power to keep you safe.” 

He raced from the hanger, already fitting his helmet over his head. 

Katie bent and grabbed her helmet from where it had fallen and started after him. 

“What can I do to help?” Matt asked. Katie spun to face him again. For an instant, anger was written on her features, but the expression softened almost at once. She hesitated. 

“You can help me with the doors.” 

Matt ran after Katie, a little surprised to find himself struggling to keep up with her. Either she’d become fitter in the time he’d been a prisoner or his physical condition had deteriorated from the lack of food. It could well be either. He wanted to say something to her, to apologise, but he hardly had breath to run. Besides, what could he say? He’d come here knowing he would be handing his rescuers over to the Galtran Empire. He hadn’t even hesitated when he’d thought they’d be strangers. What apology could ever make up for that? 

They reached a door at the end of a long hallway. Katie pulled out an object that had been clipped to her armour, a wedge-shaped item that fit her hand. The angled edge lit up brightly with green energy. Katie shoved this glowing edge into the crack at the centre of the door and twisted to create a gap between the two door halves. The moment there was enough space, Matt got his fingers into the crack and started hauling on it, heaving the door to slide it in its slot. Katie did the same and the two of them leaned their weight into it, pushing the door open. 

“All the doors are designed to be automatic,” Katie said, “and they seal in an emergency in case of hull breach.” The words came out in huffs between pants for breath. 

As soon as the door was open far enough for them both to fit through, Katie was off and running again. She clearly knew this place well, picking out a path through more of the heavy doors, down a long spiral slope, and then through another door. The whole journey was lit only by a few faint panels, giving Matt little view of this place beyond its sheer size. 

All the while, Matt felt useless and sick with guilt. What must Katie think of him right now? They ought to be celebrating being together again, instead they were racing through the darkness to undo his mistake. 

The ship lurched violently. Matt grabbed Katie instinctively as she stumbled, but then she kept running with barely a falter in her pace. 

“Yes, I’m almost there,” Katie said. It took Matt a moment to realise that she was talking into her helmet. He assumed the Galra must have arrived. 

They reached a large pair of doors. Katie took one side, Matt the other, and they hauled them open to reveal a huge space on the other side. It was a long hall, filled with dark, rectangular shapes taller than Matt was, each with a small, blue light blinking near the base. They loomed in the darkness. 

“I’m in,” Katie said. She raised her arm, tapping at her wrist until a small screen projected out from it. She peered through it, information overlaid on her view of the room. The dark rectangles showed up as blue outlines on her screen and one of them was flashing. 

“I see it,” she said, running over to that rectangle, which look to Matt exactly the same as all the others. 

Matt hung back, watching her work. He wished he could do more to help but he didn’t even know what Katie was doing. He couldn’t hear the instructions she was obviously listening to. She touched the black face of the rectangle and it lit up, blue lines forming display and buttons and alien symbols. Katie didn’t even hesitate. She started tapping away at the controls. More glowing lines of blue lit up around the base of the rectangle. Matt watched his amazing little sister working with alien technology like it was second nature, while all he could do was stand there and do nothing. Even as she worked, the room shook from unpredictable blasts, the whole place trembling from the assault the ship was taking. Matt couldn’t even guess at the damage that was happening towards the edges of the ship and he couldn’t do a thing about it. He had rarely felt more useless. 

“OK. That’s started,” Katie said. She sat back on her heels for a moment, pausing to catch her breath. 

“They have Dad,” Matt said. The need to explain had been building inside him since he’d seen the expression on her face earlier. This was the first moment he’d had the opportunity. 

Katie stayed where she was, staring at the blue lights. He couldn’t even tell if she was listening, but he needed to get the words out. He needed her to understand. 

“They promised that if I used the virus, they’d set him free, they’d let him go back to Earth. If I didn’t, they said they’d…” He couldn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t want to think about what might be happening to Dad, especially now that he’d backed out of his mission. 

“I can’t think about this now,” Katie said, her voice small in the echoing space. “I have to get the defence systems up and running again, and then I have to help my team fight off the Galra fleet that’s currently trying to blow this castle to smithereens. When that’s done, then we can talk about saving Dad.” 

She got to her feet and scrambled to one of the other rectangles, lighting up the controls as before. When she spoke again, Matt suspected she was talking to herself. 

“I have to focus.” 

Matt took that hint. He moved back a few steps and let her work. 

Her words echoed in his ears. She wanted to talk about saving their dad but she had to fight off an alien armada first, and it was all his fault. If he’d just thrown that bit of crystal away, he could have been planning a rescue for his dad right now. Instead, he was standing around uselessly while everyone else was racing around trying to undo the damage he’d caused. He’d put all their lives at risk and now it was possible Dad could die because they had to deal with this before they could even think about rescuing him. 

The weight of his guilt was crushing him. 

Katie kept working, moving to another of the rectangles, then another, fingers flying over the controls. Occasionally, she would say something, a quick confirmation or a check whether someone else was ready for her to kick off a process here. She worked quickly and then hurried to her feet. 

Her eyes fell on Matt. 

“Stay here,” she said. “Don’t touch anything. Don’t… just don’t.” 

He knew what she was really asking. She was asking him not to do any more damage, not to wreck this ship that she was so clearly at home in. Matt nodded his agreement, wrapping his arms around himself again. 

Katie raced off. 

Matt was left alone in the dark hall, with only the eerie blue lights from the machines to see by. He didn’t know what any of the displays meant. He didn’t know what was going on. He couldn’t hear the conversations happening to know what the progress of the battle was. The floor had stopped trembling from impacts or weapon hits or whatever had been causing it earlier. Matt assumed that was a good thing. He assumed that meant that the shield they’d been talking about earlier was running, but he couldn’t be sure. Maybe this ship was now adrift in space because everyone else had been wiped out. 

He couldn’t tell if his sister was alive or dead. He’d brought this enemy down on her and now he didn’t even know if he’d got her killed. 

He sank down onto the floor, sitting in the darkness between the alien machines. He hugged his knees to his chest, trying to become small. The familiar sense of helplessness pervaded his entire being. It was worse this time, worse than watching a gladiator and knowing he was going to die, worse than watching slaves get tortured to death and knowing he couldn’t stop it, worse than being dragged with his dad before a Galran commander. 

His breath came in frightened gasps, his whole body shaking with the terror. The panic drove all rational thoughts from his minds until all he could imagine was his sister dying in a thousand painful ways and his dad being torn apart by Galran soldiers. Fear became his whole existence. 

“Here you are.” 

The voice seemed to be coming from a long way away. Matt forced himself to look up. 

There was a small shape in the doorway, coming slowly towards him. As the creature moved past one of the glowing blue panels, Matt recognised it as the alien that had been clinging to his leg back in the Galran cell. It was strange to hear it speak and that strangeness was almost enough to draw Matt out of the panic attack. 

“You said we should go with these people,” the little alien said. “You said it couldn’t be worse than staying with the Galra, but you know what the Galrans do to people who try to escape. You knew you’d be luring them here to recapture us.” 

Matt couldn’t deny anything the creature was saying. It hadn’t even occurred to him to think about the consequences for the other prisoners who were being rescued with him. 

“I’m sorry,” Matt said. He wanted to explain that the Galrans had his dad, but what explanation could possibly make up for the fact that he would have let these people get caught again by the Galra and face all the torment that would entail? 

The alien creature gave a small roar of fury and leapt across the hall towards Matt. The paws that had clung to his shirt before now opened up into sharp claws.


	4. Chapter 4

Matt woke up to the sight of a transparent wall in front of him vanishing and the realisation that he was standing. His disorientation and the shock at waking in such a position nearly sent him toppling forward. Only a pair of strong hands catching him kept him upright, but stinging pain shot through his arms where the hands gripped him. 

“Here. Sit for a minute.” The voice was surprisingly kind. 

The hands lowered him down to sit on a step. Only then did Matt blink away the confusion and take in his surroundings. It had been Shiro holding him up. Behind him, the large cylinder he’d been standing in was even now lowering into the floor. The rest of the room was clearly some kind of control centre and it was full of people. Behind Shiro, Allura was working at a computer pedestal that looked like the one Matt had infected. Other figures, dressed in armour identified by bright colours, were all staring at Matt. 

One colour, he noticed immediately, was missing. 

“Katie?!” He looked to Shiro, panic already starting to rise, but Shiro held up a placating hand. 

“She’s fine. She’s helping Coran repair the defence systems. They were damaged in the fight and we’re going to need them if we’re going to launch a rescue mission.” 

There was nothing accusatory in Shiro’s tone but there didn’t need to be. Matt knew he was to blame. He looked down at his arms. That was when he noticed the scratches. They covered his forearms because he’d tried to protect his face from the small creature’s furious attack, but they looked old, scabbed over and already partly healed despite how deep they’d been earlier. He frowned at those cuts. How long had he been out? 

The surge of panic threatened again, this time as he thought about his dad. He’d been given a day for his mission. Even assuming the Galran commander had waited, there was no way of knowing what state his dad might be in by now. 

Shiro saw his stares, “The pods accelerate healing. Coran put you in one as soon as he got the main systems working again, but we had to pull you out before it finished. We need information from you and the sooner we can get it, the better.” 

Matt nodded his agreement. He wondered what had happened to the creature that had attacked him, but Shiro was right, he should focus on his dad right now. If anything he knew could help his dad, he had to share it. 

“Tell me,” said Shiro, “where your dad is and what you were sent here to do.” 

So Matt started talking. He explained about the factory and about being pulled out by the Galra commander. He told them about the deal, about the promise of freedom and the threats for failure. 

“Is your dad still at the factory?” Shiro asked. 

“I don’t know,” Matt said. He might still be there, or the Galra commander might have taken him in his ship. It was entirely possible that he had been on board a ship attacking this one. Matt didn’t know what had become of those but he guessed it would have been brutal and violent. 

"How long was it between the last time you saw your father and the ship you were on taking off?” Shiro asked. 

“I don’t know. An hour? Maybe two?” 

“Do you know which Galra commander made you the offer?” Allura asked. 

“I don’t know.” Once again, Matt felt useless. He’d not seen anything but the inside of that factory for so long. He didn’t have anything that they could use to help in a military attack. 

Allura touched something on her console and the very air lit up. Star charts and solar system maps filled the space of the room. With a few swipes, she zoomed in on one planet. Information in her alien language light up above the planet’s image. 

“Not including the ship Matt was on,” she said, “four ships have taken off from the factory in this time period.” 

“So it’s possible Pidge’s dad is at the factory or on any one of those?” asked one of the other guys, a skinny human in blue armour. 

Shiro nodded, “If we pick one of them and get it wrong, the Galra will know what we’re trying to do and either move him somewhere else or bring in more ships to defend against us, but if we go after them all at once, it means splitting up our forces.” 

The others all started talking, asking if there was a way to scan for human life, debating whether they could figure out which ship was most well-protected and assuming that was their target, throwing ideas into the mix. The more he heard, the less hopeful it seemed. They couldn’t afford to divide up their forces because it seemed that this group here were their forces, but at the same time, they couldn’t do anything other than guess to decide which target to attack. 

Matt stared at that transparent hologram of the world his dad might or might not be trapped on, imagining the torture that might already be happening. He’d brought so much mess down on these people, it was up to him to do something to fix things. 

“Send me back to the Galra,” he said. 

“What?” At least three people asked that question. 

"I did what they ordered me to do," Matt said. "I could go back and try to get the Galran commander to keep his promise about freeing Dad.” 

“You can’t honestly believe they’ll keep their bargain?” asked the guy in red armour. 

“No, but I might be able to find out if Dad’s still at the factory. If he’s there, the Galra will probably want to taunt me by making me watch him get tortured. If he’s not, they might say something that lets you learn which ship he was sent on.”

“But if he’s not there,” Shiro said, “we’ll have two rescue missions to run instead of one.” 

Matt wanted to tell them to forget about him. After all he’d done to them, they would be completely justified in abandoning him to the Galra. As long as they got his dad out, he wouldn’t mind. He thought about Shiro getting him out of the way and then taking on the supposedly unbeatable gladiator in order to save him. Shrio had been willing to risk his life for him then. It was about time Matt took a risk of his own. 

“Pidge would kill us if we let you go back in after we’ve only just rescued you,” said the guy in blue armour. 

“It would be exceedingly dangerous,” said Allura, “and you might get killed before we could extract you.” 

“Yes,” agreed blue. “And that.” 

“You can’t do a rescue without knowing where to go though,” Matt said, “and this is the quickest way to find out. I don’t want to leave Dad in their hands a second longer than necessary.” 

“But the Galra might shoot you out of the sky as soon as you get close,” said yellow. “Or they might let you land and then shoot you before you find out anything. Or you might find your dad but not be able to tell us you’ve found him.” He looked like he could carry on all day. 

“Look,” said Matt, “my dad has this saying. If you spend all your time worrying about what could go wrong, you might miss the chance to do something great. I caused all this mess for you guys; I want to be a part of helping get Dad out. This is something I can do that no one else can.” 

Shiro fixed Matt with a serious look. “This isn’t about punishing yourself for the virus, is it?” 

“No. I just… I need to be a part of this. I can find out where Dad is and get a message back to you guys and then you can do the rescue.” 

Shiro looked at him for a long moment and then nodded, “It could work.” 

***

“No. No. No. No!” Katie had not taken the news well. Matt and Shiro had gone to find her in one of the other rooms of this huge castle ship to explain the rough plan they’d agreed. She now jabbed a mechanical tool angrily towards Matt. 

“I did not spend all this time trying to find you to let you go back to the Galra now,” Katie said. 

“It’s to help find Dad,” Matt said. 

“We can attack the factory and rescue Dad without you risking your life.” 

“What if he’s on one of the other ships?” 

“Then we attack the other ships too.” 

“What if they realise what you’re trying to do and kill him before you can go after all the ships?” 

“What if they kill you as soon as you arrive?” Katie demanded. 

“I don’t think they would,” Matt said. “Galra prefer slow kills. They’ll probably want to capture me and taunt me. Either they’ll take me to Dad so we can watch each other suffer or I can find out something about where he’s been sent.” 

“It’s the ‘watch each other suffer’ part that bothers me. I’m supposed to be happy sending you back to get tortured? I want you safe.” 

“I want _you_ safe,” Matt echoed. “You should be back on Earth, wowing scholarship committees with your electrical engineering genius. You shouldn’t be out here flying alien spaceships into combat. But you’re not going to sit back and let someone else do all the work of rescuing Dad, are you?” 

Katie glared at him. Matt glared back. It was strange seeing her here, with her shorter hair and wearing glasses. It was almost like glaring into a mirror. 

“Are you done arguing?” Shiro asked. 

Katie turned her glare on him, “We’re not sending him to the Galra without protection.” 

“I can’t exactly go in there with guns and armour,” Matt pointed out, “or they’ll know it’s all part of a plan.” 

“You need something. And you’ll need something to signal us with when you find Dad.” Matt noticed that she said ‘when’ and not ‘if’. “Let’s go to the armoury and see what we can make use of.” 

And so it was decided. Matt was going back.


	5. Chapter 5

Matt sat at the controls of the small craft, which was considerably less cramped now that he was the only one in it. He was grateful to whoever had designed this thing for making the controls intuitive because all the instructions were in alien script. He could fly it in a straight line though, which was all he needed. When he got close enough to the Galra, they’d probably use a tractor beam to bring him in. 

He fretted about the plan. Katie was right that far too much could go wrong with it, but they’d made contingencies and, if the worst came to the worst, he could send an emergency signal and the others would know to come in and get him as fast as possible. 

As he flew closer to his former prison, he mentally checked off his inventory to keep himself calm. Going into a panic attack now wouldn’t help anyone. He felt the weight of a ring of metal sewn into the end of his sleeve. If he said the right code word it would send out a short burst of energy, enough to slice through any handcuffs that might be put on him. Or possibly his own flesh if he wasn’t careful. 

He felt the lump of the transmitter stuck to his chest. Despite her obvious fear, Katie had seemed really proud of herself for that creation, which Matt took to mean that it was a work of utter genius. He could use code phrases to make it send signals that she hoped wouldn’t be detected by the Galra, letting Katie and the others know his situation. They’d talked about a voice transmitter, but that signal could easily be detected by the Galrans and, even if they couldn’t decode it, they would know he was working with the others. This way, Katie hoped it would remain secret. 

In his pocket was the object his hoped would keep him and his dad alive if things went ugly. He also had the tiny knife tucked into his shoe that could light up with burning energy at the press of a button. It was ridiculously small but it was the weapon in the armoury least likely to get found on him. He couldn’t exactly sneak in with a gun the size of his torso and he didn’t have one of those magically appearing weapons that Katie and her team seemed to have. If he survived the next few hours, he was going to have a long conversation with her about the physics of those because the guy in yellow had a ridiculously large gun that appeared out of a small handle. Was there some sort of matter transportation going on? 

Those were just some of the questions he had for Katie if he survived this rescue mission. When they’d been making plans, they’d focused on the immediate issues and making sure that everyone knew what was meant to happen. Shiro had insisted on them memorising backups and contingencies, which left little time for indulging his curiosity. He tried to distract himself from his fear by cataloguing questions. He really wanted to know how Katie had ended up out here, how Shiro had escaped the Galra, who the others were, and why the hell everyone kept calling Katie Pidge. That last one made him think about their mom and the period of time back when Katie had been about six and had refused to answer to the name she’d been assigned at birth because it was a boy’s name. Their parents hadn’t agreed yet that she was a girl but Mom had used the nickname Pidgeon for Katie because she wouldn’t start throwing tantrums at that one. Katie hadn’t gone by that nickname in years though so it was strange that she’d use a name that sounded so similar to it now. 

Matt kept on with his list of questions. He still wanted to know what had happened to the alien who’d attacked him. The little creature had been perfectly justified in its anger so Matt hoped the Voltron Paladins hadn’t hurt it in any way. 

He also wondered about all the strange science that didn’t fit with anything he’d studied on Earth. Katie and Shiro had talked about their lions, which were apparently sentient and could turn into a giant robot. A part of Matt was reconsidering the idea that all of this was a dream because lions turning into robots made about as much sense as dreams usually did. Maybe his time spent with the Galra had caused him to have a psychotic break because he couldn’t cope with the reality of being their prisoner anymore. Maybe the psychotic break had happened on the Kerberos mission and even the Galra were the symptoms of a delusion. 

All he could really do was face the reality that he perceived and do the best he could with that. Right now, the involved going into an enemy factory and waiting for his little sister to appear in a giant, magical lion to rescue him. 

One of the screens flashed up what was probably a warning. Matt jumped in surprise and started at the alien gibberish that was trying to tell him something important. 

A moment later, a Galra face appeared on a screen that projected out of the console and two fighters approached his ship. 

“Unknown vessel,” demanded the Galra, “state your identity and clearance.” 

Matt didn’t have to pretend to sound afraid as he replied, “This is Matt. The Earthling. Your commander has my dad. I’ve come back for him.” 

The face vanished and Matt’s hands trembled on the ship’s controls. If they blew him out of the sky there wouldn’t be a damn thing he could do about it and all this would be for nothing. 

The face flashed up again, “Proceed on your course to the munitions factory and land on the interior hanger. If you deviate from your course, you will be destroyed.” 

“The thing is,” said Matt, “I don’t really know what I’m doing flying this thing. If I try to land, I’ll probably crash.” 

Katie had walked him through the basics of the controls, including how to land, but it was better that the Galra didn’t know that. Besides, he knew landing was one of the most dangerous times in flying. He’d crashed the simulator back at the Garrison more than once and that had been a craft he was familiar with. 

After a moment, the Galra said, “Bring your ship into orbit above the factory and kill your engines. We will bring your ship in by tractor beam.” 

“OK. You got it.” 

The face vanished again, the communication cut. Matt let out a relieved breath. At least they were letting him land. There were still a lot of ways he could die but at least the first stage was working. The Galran fighters flew in formation on either side of him and Matt kept his course between them and then killed his engines as instructed. For a moment, he imagined the ship falling out of the sky and smashing to pieces on the barren world below, but then a purple light enveloped the craft and he was drawn slowly downwards towards the factory. 

He just had to hope that his dad was still there. 

The tractor beam pulled his ship into a large hanger full of Galra fighters. Soldiers and sentry drones waited for him, weapons ready. As Matt deactivated the canopy, he found himself staring at about a dozen large guns. He swallowed his terror and started to climb out of the ship. 

Purple hands grabbed him and hauled him out. Matt landed hard on the hanger floor and stayed down. The less he did to provoke them, the better. If they searched him, he was done for. 

Hands grabbed his arms, yanking them behind him, and cuffs locked around his wrists. It was OK, he reminded himself. They’d prepared for this. 

“Up!” the Galra ordered. Matt climbed slowly to his feet, avoiding making sudden moves and fighting for balance with his arms restrained. The Galran soldier grabbed hold of Matt and started marching him into the factory. 

Matt tried to keep his relief from his face at the fact that they hadn’t searched him. They wouldn’t have bothered cuffing him like this if they’d planned on just shooting him, so he was probably OK for now as long as he didn’t do anything stupid. He just went along easily, surrounded by his guards, and tried to his to body from shaking. 

The Galran opened up a door and shoved Matt into a control room of some sort. The guard and sentries stayed outside the room, but the Galran commander who’d sent Matt on his mission stood at the controls but behind him, kneeling on the floor, was Matt’s dad. The man’s shirt was torn in places, dark with blood as it clung to his torso. Splatters of red decorated the ground around him and Matt guessed there were more wounds on his back, but he was alive. He looked up and his eyes met Matt’s, hopeful and afraid all at once. 

“I love you, Dad,” Matt said quickly. He felt the faintest of trembles against his chest as Katie’s signalling device became active. He waited for alarms or shouts or some indication from the Galran control consoles that the signal had been detected, but there was nothing. Matt dared to hope that meant that phase two was working. 

The Galran commander stalked over to Matt, “You clearly don’t love him enough to complete your mission.” 

“I did what you asked. I uploaded the virus. It’s not my fault that they detected it and fought off your fleet. Blame whoever wrote that virus or your pilots or someone else. I did what you asked. Please, let my dad go.” 

There was a slim chance, so slim it barely existed, that the Galran commander would keep his promise. It was still worth the attempt, however low the odds might be, because if they could convince the Galra to let them fly out of here, they could get back to the castle ship without a fight. 

“You were supposed to help me capture the Voltron lions and you failed.” 

“You didn’t say anything about lions,” Matt insisted. “You said if I uploaded the virus, you’d let us go. I did that. Please.” 

It was obvious this wasn’t going to work, but the other plan involved him distracting the commander and staying alive until their rescuers arrived. That was something he hoped he could pull off. 

“Failure does not put me in a merciful mood,” the commander said. 

“If you have to take your anger out on someone, take it out on me,” Matt said. “Just let me dad go. He’s not the one you think failed you.” 

“Matt, no,” his dad said, voice croaking with pain. 

Matt stood before the Galra and tried to look determined, “Do whatever you like to me, but let my dad go.” 

“You are in no position to make demands, Earthling.” 

“I’m not demanding. I’m begging. I’ll work for you again. I’ll try something else. If you let my dad go, I swear I’ll work for you forever. I’ll do whatever you ask.” 

Hi dad was shaking his head, pleading with his eyes. Matt forced himself not to look, staring instead at the Galran commander. 

“That’s not much of an offer from a slave,” the commander said. He seemed to be amused by Matt’s pleading. That was hopefully a good thing. The longer this was funny to him, the better his odds of not getting tortured before the rescue arrived. Matt was just thinking of some new way to phrase his pleas when the console behind the commander lit up with warnings. A Galran face appeared on a screen. 

“Commander, a wormhole just opened.” 

Matt started moving as soon as the commander’s attention was away from him. He ran across the room, pulling his hands as far apart as the cuffs would allow. 

“Quiznak,” he said, the code apparently an Altean swearword. With a flash of light and a screech of breaking metal, the cuffs snapped apart. Matt reached his dad’s side and pulled out a small object from his pocket. 

The commander turned towards the movement and lunged at him. Matt flinched back, closing his eyes in fear as the hand lashed at his head, but he still hit the button on the device he held. There was a cry of pain and anger. 

Matt risked opening his eyes. 

The commander stood on the other side of a shield, clutching the stump where his hand had been. The hand now lay on the ground at Matt’s feet, inside the shield. 

“What the hell?” Matt’s dad asked, blinking in surprise at the blue shield now between them and the room. 

“You planned this!” the Galran roared in anger. 

“Serves you right, you purple bastard!” Matt snarled back. It was easier to be brave from this side of a shield. 

The Galran grabbed a gun and started shooting, blasting energy at the shield. Lasers burst against the curving edge of the shield. Matt flinched back and realised with terror that he didn’t know how much the shield could take. After all this, they could end up killed anyway. He only had one last trick left and it wasn’t much of one. Matt bent and pulled the feeble knife from his shoe. He had to think of something else to try. He didn’t want to stay trapped here until the shield failed and he got blasted. 

“Commander,” said a Galra voice on the screen. “Voltron is attacking our ships.” 

The commander stopped shooting and turned to his console to yell orders at his subordinate. Matt took advantage of his distraction. He pressed the shield device into his dad’s hand and deactivated it in the same movement. He leapt across the room and stuck his little knife into the Galran’s shoulder. He’d been aiming for the neck, but the commander had moved. 

A moment later and Matt was flying across the room, hitting the floor even before he realised he’d been hit. His whole body throbbed in pain from the impact but he tried to push himself upright as the commander raised his gun again. Matt just had a second to consider how utterly stupid that attack had been.


	6. Chapter 6

Matt’s dad was moving as soon as Matt hit the ground. Matt opened his mouth to shout out a warning but there was no time. His dad reached the commander’s side and an instant later the shield burst into life again. Purple gore splattered down inside the shield and outside. Two halves of the Galra commander’s body crumpled to the ground. The shield had sliced him through. 

Matt stared for several seconds, terror slowing his thoughts so that it took far too long for him to comprehend what had just happened. 

“Holy crap,” Matt said. “Dad, that was seriously bad ass.” 

His dad was breathing heavily, panting far more than he should have been given that he’d only moved about five steps, but he was smiling. 

“It worked with the arm. No reason why it shouldn’t work again. About time we got to take out one of these bastards.” 

He pressed the switch to make the shield disappear and Matt hurried to his side. He wrapped his arms around his dad in a hug, pulling back almost at once as his dad hissed in pain. 

“How badly are you hurt?” Matt asked. 

“I’ve had worse. I take it you have a plan to go with these shiny toys?” 

Matt nodded. There were in fact two plans, two possible options depending on how things went. Matt was tempted to just take his dad back to the hanger and get out of here, but he’d already caused a huge mess by thinking only of his family. He couldn’t ignore the fact that there were innocent people in this factory. 

He looked his dad up and down. 

“Are you up for trying to rescue the rest of the prisoners?” Matt asked. He wanted his dad to make this decision. A part of him hoped his dad would decide they should just make their escape, but he already knew that wasn’t going to happen. 

His dad nodded. 

Matt bent and grabbed the huge gun the Galra commander had been shooting at him with. As an afterthought, he retrieved the little knife as well, though he didn’t expect he’d be using it from here on. 

“Right,” Matt said, “time for plan P.” 

The device on his chest buzzed again and his dad gave him a puzzled frown. Matt pulled down the collar of his shirt to show the device. 

“It’s a transmitter,” Matt said. “Voice activated. I was just filling in our rescue team what we’re up to.” 

He didn’t mention that Katie was part of that team. They still had a base full of Galrans to deal with and there wasn’t time to explain to his dad. Besides, he wasn’t sure his dad would believe him until he saw for himself. Matt knew he wouldn’t have done. 

“Keep the shield ready to go,” Matt said. “This could get messy.” 

He raised the gun and went to the door. His dad was right beside him, clutching the little shield generator. His dad hit the controls for the door and Matt started shooting, just to be on the safe side. A handful of sentry robots fell to the ground before they could bring their own weapons to bear. Matt stepped out into the corridor and paused to let his dad grab a gun from one of the fallen sentries. 

There was no sign of more Galrans. Matt hoped they were all up above trying to fight off the magic, robot lions. Not that he wanted them to be attacking Katie, but he suspected she was better able to deal with them than he was. 

They headed for the elevator, listening out for any sign of enemy presence. Footsteps approached from round a corner and Matt dropped back, putting enough distance between himself and his dad that they could bring up the shield without risking Matt getting cut in half. The shield formed an elongated dome, tall enough for a man in the centre and just over a metre across. With the shield activated, most of the corridor was blocked, giving Matt ample cover. As the sentry robots rounded the corner, their weapons impacted on the shield. Matt stood behind the dome of the shield and leaned round it, firing his gun while keeping his body sheltered. 

They had to do this twice more before they reached the elevator down into the factory. 

Matt wished he could know what was happening up above. He hoped that Katie was OK. He hoped they were winning. All this was for nothing if the Galran fleet drove off the Voltron fighters. 

“So you joined up with the Galran’s enemies?” his dad asked, now that they had a moment where they weren’t being shot at. 

“It’s better than that, but you’ll find out when we get out of here.” 

“Well now I definitely need to survive because there’s no way I can let you get away with not explaining a statement like that.” 

“All part of my plan.” 

They shared a brief smile and then the elevator was down at the factory level and they both had their weapons raised again. The elevator doors opened to a haze of laser fire. Matt pressed himself into the edge of the elevator, shooting wildly and fighting down panic at the burst of energy all around him. 

In took him several seconds to realise that the shooting outside the elevator had stood. He took his finger off the trigger and took a deep breath. His ears rang in the sudden absence of loud noises but then he heard his dad’s quiet noises of pain. 

“Dad!” 

His dad was leaning against the wall of the elevator. A line was scored across one arm, the smell of burned flesh breaking through the ozone stink from the weapons. His other hand was pressed against his side. 

“I’m fine,” his dad insisted, even though it was obvious he was anything but. Matt wanted to suggest heading back up, but there were bound to be more sentries between them and the pod. They had a fight either way. At least if they kept going, Matt might get some of the factory workers to help with getting his dad out of here. 

“Stay behind me,” Matt said. “Raise the shield if they start shooting again.” His dad nodded and then raised his gun with a grunt of effort. 

Matt led the way into the corridor and towards the doors into the factory. 

They each took up a position pressed against the walls, one on either side of the door. Matt brought up his gun and hit the controls for the door. He shot the closest sentry from his sheltered position and then had to lean further into the doorway to take out two more. 

There were cries of surprise from down below as Matt hurried onto the walkway above the factory floor. He didn’t bother to aim at that point, just sent laser fire in a constant burst along the walkways. 

The factory had been designed to that the sentries up above could easily look down on the workers below and that meant there was nowhere for them to hide now as the line of fire cut through the air. Beside Matt, his dad activated the shield again, or tried to. There was a burst of energy and then the shield failed. They’d probably burned out its power source raising and lowering it so much. His dad swore and dropped to the walkway as the remaining sentries started shooting. 

Matt ducked down over his dad, trying to shoot and cower at the same time. 

Then something came flying up from the factory floor. A length of metal came rising up to hit one of the sentries across the chest. 

That first projectile was all that was needed to spur the other workers into action. Half-finished parts and lumps of raw material flew up with a hailstorm of metal, striking the sentries over and over. As the robots turned to deal with these new attacks, they stopped shooting at Matt. He had the opportunity to raise his gun one last time and shoot them down. 

A ragged cheer rose from the factory as the last sentry fell, but it was far from unanimous. One voice wailed, “They’ll kill us. They’ll kill us all for this.” 

“They won’t have the chance,” Matt called down. “Voltron is out there right now fighting the Galran ships. They’re going to take us all to safety.” 

“Voltron’s a myth!” someone yelled. 

“I don’t know about myths, but there are five robot lions up there kicking Galran ass. You can come with us to meet them, or you can stay here and see what the Galra do to you.” 

There was a surge of people hurrying up the stairs. If any workers remained doubtful, they were swept along in a flood of peer pressure and the desire to not face the Galran’s wrath alone. Matt went back to his dad, who was still crouched on the walkway, arm clutched across his side. Fresh splatters of blood decorated the metal at his feet. 

“Come on,” Matt said, “we’re nearly out of here.” 

His dad nodded and struggled to his feet. He looked pale. Matt could only imagine how much pain he must be in, and how much blood he might have lost from torture before all this started. 

One of the workers who came up the stairs was a Stindan, a huge creature that always made Matt think of trolls from fantasy movies. The Stindan looked at Matt’s dad. 

“I help?” it offered. 

Matt nodded, more grateful than he could express. The Stindan lifted Matt’s dad up like he was a doll, holding him in its arms. Other workers went to the sentries and grabbed guns. Matt drew a steadying breath and started leading the way out of the factory, glad that he wouldn’t be the only one shooting. It was hard to think about anything but how weak his dad looked. He tried to think about Shiro and what he’d said about pods that accelerated healing. If they could make it to the ship, he would be OK. He had to be. 

There was no way they could go up in the elevator in batches. There were about a hundred workers from the factory and using the elevator would take far too long and leave them vulnerable to being picked off in little clusters up at the top. There was a stairway, though Matt doubted it saw much use. It was better for them to go up in a group. Matt was near the front, but not quite at the front because he wanted to stay close to his dad. Those who’d picked up weapons formed the front end of a sea of people, hurrying up the stairs towards the surface and escape. 

Sentries and Galran soldiers appeared up above, shooting down. The escaped prisoners shot up. No one could really get aim and the prisoners pressed against the walls to avoid being targets and kept climbing up. A couple of people gave cries of pain as they were grazed by the lasers, but none of them fell. Matt was running on adrenaline and a desperate need to get his dad out of here. That ascent passed in a blur of lasers and fear until they came out near the top. Matt didn’t even have to fire his gun; a few of the prisoners in front of him took out the enemy as he got there. 

Then Matt took the lead again, hurrying towards the hanger and the ship he’d flown here. That ship wouldn’t be able to fit even a quarter of the prisoners, but it would get some of them out. 

The hanger was nearly deserted when they reached it. His little ship was the only one there. He hurried over and climbed into the cockpit. 

“Home sweet home,” he said, the final one of the vocal commands Katie had programed in. 

The communications screen came to life and Allura’s face lit it up. 

“Matt, you’ve got your dad?” 

“Yes. And about a hundred prisoners from the factory. We’re not all going to fit in this ship.” 

“We’ve taken out the main defences,” Allura said. “I’ll bring the castle in to land as close as I can. Voltron will give you cover while the prisoners come to us.” 

Matt relayed the message to the prisoners and added, “Any of you who are injured can ride with me.” 

The Stindan lifted Matt’s dad up and gently set him in the second seat. Matt’s dad didn’t react. He just slumped unconscious where he was placed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we reach the point where I lay out some of my headcanons for trans!Pidge.

“You should get some sleep,” Shiro said, walking up to where Matt sat in the control room of the castle ship. Matt was a little surprised that they were trusting him in here after all he’d done, but his dad apparently warranted one of the healing pods here instead of in the infirmary. Most of the other former prisoners were down in the infirmary, either in pods of their own or being tended to by the Paladins. Katie had wanted Matt to go into one of the pods, but there wasn’t room for everyone and his injuries were minor ones. For now, he would keep vigil and wait for his dad to wake up. 

“When Dad comes out,” Matt said. 

“He’ll be in there for hours.” 

The meaning behind that was clear. His dad had been close to death when they’d put him inside. Even with advanced healing, it would take a long time for him to recover. 

“I… I won’t be able to sleep if I leave him.” Matt knew what would happen inside his brain. His thoughts would fill with irrational fears about all the things that might be happening to his dad. Right now, he could see his dad through the transparent front of the pod and reassure himself he was safe. 

“I’ll have someone bring you some food at least.” 

Matt nodded. He didn’t feel hungry but he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten. Food would probably be a good plan. 

Shiro came to his side and place a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. 

“You did good today,” Shiro said. 

“I infected your ship with a virus and nearly got you all killed.” 

“You were trying to save your dad.” 

Matt couldn’t believe how forgiving Shiro was being. He didn’t sound like he blamed Matt at all, even though he deserved to. Shiro deserved to be as angry with Matt as that alien earlier had been. 

“What happened to the alien that attacked me?” Matt asked. 

“Coran found him trying to claw you to bits in the data room and explained that getting revenge isn’t something Paladins of Voltron approve of and that you were only trying to protect your family. We let him go along with everyone else who was on that ship with you, sent them off in a pod and wished them luck.” 

Matt nodded, glad to hear that the little creature hadn’t been hurt. 

“Try to rest,” Shiro advised again, and then he left. 

After a few minutes, Katie came into the room holding a couple of bowls of a strange, green goo. She was out of her armour now, dressed in shorts and a loose t-shirt. It was strange to see her looking like that, without any outward effort to portray femininity. Back home, she’d always been careful with dresses and her breast forms and choice of colours to make sure no one would mistake her for male. She had none of that now and it was very disconcerting. 

“I brought you some food.” She offered him a bowl of goo. Matt prodded at it, suddenly reconsidering his decision to eat. This stuff really didn’t look appetising. 

Katie must have noticed his expression because she said, “It’s better than it looks. It grows on you.” She took a mouthful and swallowed without any sign of displeasure. “Though if we drop all of those prisoners off at a friendly planet, it would be nice to pick up some actual supplies for a change.” 

“How long have you been here?” Matt asked. From the way she was talking, it had been a while. 

“Nearly six months,” Katie answered. 

“How did you end up here?” 

So Katie started talking. While Matt ate his way through the green gloop, Katie explained about the announcement that the Kerberos mission had been lost, how it had been explained as pilot error even though there was no evidence of a crash. She talked about running her own investigations and getting banned from the Galaxy Garrison. She explained how she’d known she needed to get back inside and how the simplest way had been to go for the cadet program. 

“They’d banned me,” she said, “but they all knew me as Commander Holt’s daughter. I could come up with a false identity but the easiest way to avoid anyone figuring out my real identity was to… to pretend to be a boy.” She said that last part in a pained tone. 

“Oh, Katie,” Matt breathed. 

“It was worth it,” Katie said. “It would be worth it a hundred times over.” 

“But it must have been hard. After everything you fought for, to have to act as a boy.” 

“I tried to make it easier,” she said. “When I made my false identity, I couldn’t bear the thought of being called Philip.” She said the name that had been given to her at birth. “But Pidge isn’t really a boy’s name or a girl’s name. It didn’t feel uncomfortable to be called that. And when I cut my hair,” she smiled a little, “I tried to make it like yours. I even took an old pair of your glasses and replaced the lens with ordinary glass. I wanted it so that when I looked in a mirror, I wouldn’t see me as a boy. I’d see you, I’d remember why I was doing it.” 

“And no one figured out who you were even with you looking like me?” 

“Everyone knew Dad’s second child was a daughter. I went through the physical at registration and I let a couple of guys see me getting changed once in a while, and no one questioned that I was a boy. I guess it was about time cisnormativity worked in my favour.” She smiled again, genuine amusement this time, “You should have seen how Lance reacted when I told him I was really a girl.” 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” Matt said. 

“Pretty sure what you went through was a hell of a lot worse.” 

“I can still be sorry. So what happened next? How did you get from the Garrison to here?” 

And so Katie continued her story. 

***

Matt had drifted to sleep curled up in one of the command chairs. Every so often, there would be faint noises from the machinery of the control room, beeps or whirs that would stir him from sleep. Every so often, his own imagination would do the same, filling his mind with gruesome dreams that jolted him awake, sweating and terrified, until his eyes fell on the healing pod with his father inside, or his little sister slumped asleep in one of the other chairs. Those two sights together would be enough to calm his racing heart and then he would drift into sleep once again. 

And so time passed. Hours, probably, slipping away in a stir of restless sleep. 

Then the noise that woke him was a soft whoosh and his eyes opened to the sight of the healing pod releasing its occupant. Matt hurried to his feet, nearly tripping over his own legs as he untangled from the chair. 

“Dad!” 

Matt rushed to his dad’s side, putting his hands on his dad’s arms to hold him steady, remembering how disorientating this moment had been for him. 

“Matt?” His dad sounded confused, dazed. 

“It’s me. You’re safe.” He guided his dad to the chair he’d been sleeping in moments before. The noise had woken Katie and now she was there at his side, grinning widely, eyes sparkling with tears. 

“Hey, Dad,” she said. 

Their dad looked at her, his confusion deepening. 

“Katie? Are we... are we home?” 

“Not exactly, Dad, but soon. Soon.” 

Their dad sat where they placed him, holding a hand out to each of them. Matt took the offered hand and gave it a squeeze. Beside him, Katie really did start crying. 

“I missed you so much,” she said. 

And then there were tears on all sides, and hugs, and declarations of love and how much they’d all missed each other. It took some time for the flood of emotions to subside enough for the conversation to be anything more than the raw expression of delight at the reunion, but then it was time for Dad to ask all the questions that had been running through Matt’s mind not so long ago, all the questions Katie had just spent so long answering for Matt. 

“Let’s get you some food,” Katie said, “and I’ll tell you everything.” 

The three of them walked together to the dining room, their father in the middle, Matt and Katie each with an arm around their dad’s back. They walked in a pressed-together line, no one wanting to be the one to break contact. After so long as a slave, not daring to show any sign of weakness, it was a strange heaven to be able to show how much he needed this closeness without having to be afraid. 

In the dining room, Shiro was sitting eating with Keith. Shiro was on his feet at once, saluting with a wide grin on his face. 

“Shiro,” Matt’s dad said. He didn’t return the salute. He pulled away from his children long enough to wrap Shiro in a hug. Shiro patted the older man on the back once before pulling away. 

“We thought you were dead,” Matt’s dad said. “I could never thank you enough for what you did for Matt.” 

“We all did what we had to, sir.” 

“Shiro, after everything you’ve done for my family, I think you can call me Sam. Now, tell me everything.” 

And so, while they ate more of the green goo, Katie told her story again, this time with Shiro adding a few points of detail here and there. Matt had heard the story once already but he was still astonished by what he heard, stories of magical lions and wormholes and sentient rocks that produced crystals. It all sounded like something out of fantasy. 

“I always knew you would do something incredible,” their dad said when Katie had finished her story, “I never doubted for a moment, but I never dreamt it would be something like this.” He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. “I’m proud of you, kiddo.” 

Katie smiled, ducking her head a little. Matt wondered if she was going to start crying again. 

“But now,” their dad continued, “it’s time for us to go back to Earth.” 

At those words, Katie went completely rigid with tension.


End file.
